Ukraine is already in NATO, it's just the first line of defense without voting rights – German expert

NATO can do "whatever it wants" with Ukraine without accepting it as a member.

German military expert Carlo Masala stated this in an interview with his Danish colleague Anders Puck Nielsen, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.

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"Ukraine, unfortunately, will not become a NATO member. But I would integrate Ukrainians into the structures we have, without going as far as full membership. Essentially, there is no difference between the Ukrainian Armed Forces and NATO's armed forces. They are essentially the same armed forces, with the difference that Ukrainians have no voice at the NATO negotiating table.

But I would include them in all our commands as a partner country. I would include them in the Enhanced Forward Presence Force in the Baltic states," Masala said.

He believes that European armies should learn from the Ukrainian Armed Forces before the war with Russia, scheduled for 2029.

"Ukraine's role in this process will be to serve as the first line of defense. I'm not just referring to our society, but also to our armed forces, which can learn a lot from the Ukrainian army, as it is the only non-Russian force in Europe that will have combat experience by the end of the war."

"They will learn the lessons of this war, put them into practice, and we can learn from them. Not the other way around. The Ukrainians can't learn much from us after four years of war, but we can learn from them," Masala reasoned.